Anyone been to Malta?

[fedssocr1]

With all of the world travelers around here I thought I would throw this out there. I am planning a trip to Malta for early October. Snagged a frequent flier ticket so that's all set now I'm trying to figure out where to stay. I'm more into historic/cultural touring and not really into a nightlife, beach/pool sitting experience. The islands have a huge wealth of sites to see. I have come across a self-cater apartment in an 18th century townhouse in a historic area that sounds interesting (and it's very cheap) but am trying to sift through all of the options.

[bigguyinpasadena]

That is so strange FedSoccr-my friend Hussy and I have been discussing Malta.Seems to be one of the more affordable destinations in Europe right now.

Great minds think alike!

[fedssocr1]

I guess so. :-) Given it's Roman Catholic cultural roots I guess it's not the gayest destination out there, but there appear to be a few gay establishments and there's one hotel that caters exclusively to gay men. The place has so much interesting history to it though I think it's very attractive for me. It also caters quite a bit to Brits and continental types who want to soak up sun.

 

There are lots of packages out there from companies like Academic Tours in NYC http://www.academictours.com that seem to be pretty cheap. Of course you have to add all of the taxes on to their prices, but still quite reasonable. The Washington Post travel section had an article last fall about Malta and the author had arranged his trip with Academic tours. I was shopping yesterday for consolidator fares online but most of the cheap fares were unavailable. I called United just for the heck of it to see if they had any FF tickets and was pretty surprised that I could get one, in business class no less on Lufthansa mainly. The routings sort of suck because I have to go DCA-PHL-FRA-MLA on the outbound and MLA-FRA-JFK-IAD on the return, but for $100 to fly business I thought it was worth it to make an extra flight. I'm pretty excited. The first couple of weeks in October are also Malta Historic Cities festival dates with lots of interesting programs. http://www.visitmalta.com for more info.

[Guest rohale]

I went to Malta about two years ago now with my family and my ex-girlfriend and her family. We stayed in a bungalow that a friend of mine had rented for us as a group. We had such a great time, the food, the rich culture. We spent most of our time around the shopping centers. They sell designer clothing items at half price than what one would regularily pay at a clothing store. If I could make a recommendation to you, if you have time to visit other cities or towns. You might like Seville which is a nice town in Spain, very similar to Malta. If you want a list of hotels or places, send an email and I'll try to find an old list that I kept from my travels to Southern Europe. In the meantime good luck with your trip in Oct and take pleny of sunscreen and beach towels.

 

Rohale

[Guest msclonly]

Historical cruise included Malta

 

Malta maybe Roman Catholic and former headquarters for the Knights of Malta, but it also is the origin of religions and many beliefs in the Catholic church with many of the beliefs thinly disquised from ancient times. And we still believe a lot of it in some form!

The blood Offerings to Mother Earth at the tarkean (sp) tombs is a good place to start the evolution of religions from ancient times.

There is enough history here to cover the whole medittarean.

 

Language will not be a problem, since English is spoken every where, and I suspect the reason so many Brits go there for the sun. A peaceful place.